Another Travel Insurance Question...

[sparky9016]

Sorry if this has been answered before... I am going to buy my travel insurance and need to just clarify.. when they ask for the amount of the trip, or the cost of the trip, if I haven't yet booked my flights, do I just estimate what they will cost? Thanks!

[6rugrats]

No idea, it depends on your policy. We purchase through TravelGuard and at the time of purchase, they only want you to list any nonrefundable monies you have paid at the time you purchase your policy. Read yours and it will tell you. If you can't figure it out, call the company.

[blindrid]

From http://www.tripinsurancestore.com

 

Q. If I buy my insurance now, will the plane tickets that I purchase later for those parts of the trip be covered?

A. Yes, you can cover your plane tickets you purchase later. You can either estimate your total trip cost now and insure that much or cover your known costs today and increase the insurance later (when you incur higher trip costs).

If you want / need coverage for pre-existing medical conditions:

You need to cover your full prepaid non-refundable trip cost when you get your insurance. It's unlikely you'll know today what this trip cost is, so you're best option is to guess high on the cost and then, later when you find out exactly what the cost is, you can lower your insurance coverage. If you end up going to a lower trip cost bracket, you'll get a partial refund of the insurance premium.

 

Hope that helps. [url=http://www.tripinsurancestore.com/faqs.shtml#f][/url]

[cruiseco]

Yes, you can modify the policy at a later date to add your air arrangements. In almost all cases the total end result premium will be the same as if you had done it all at once by estimating what your air cost would be.

 

Just be careful if you're estimating. Some plans, in order to get coverage for pre-existing medical conditions require you to insure ALL of your pre-paid, non-refundable trip arrangements. So if you estimate your air cost at $500 and it later turns out to be $510 and you don't correct that error you may have blown your pre-existing medical condition coverage.

 

For example, this is from a Travelex plan:

 

"The Pre-Existing Conditions exclusion is waived for You if You enroll in the Plan at the time You pay the deposit required for the Covered Trip (or within twenty-one (21) days of the initial deposit) and You purchase the coverage under the Plan for the full cost of the Covered Trip."

 

Note: what that quote doesn't go into is that newly booked arrangements would have to be added to the policy within 21 days of their purchase also if they bump you into a higher trip cost / premium bracket.

 

So if you decide to estimate the cost of the airfare upfront be sure to triple-check what your new total trip cost to be insured is as soon as you've made the flight arrangements.